Lack of legal clarity in surrogacy, Irish court told

The parents who “commission” a child by a surrogate mother should be presumed to be the legal parents of that child, an expert on infertility told the High Court yesterday.

Dr Mary Wingfield, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, specialising in infertility, also said she was “very much in favour of surrogacy”. One of the problems in Ireland was there was no clear mechanism in law and Irish clinics tended “not to get involved because of the lack of legal clarity”, she said. The doctor, a member of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, which reported seven years ago and recommended legislation in the area, said she was “very, very disappointed” the recommendations had not been followed.

“We so badly need legislation; it is tragic that couples have to end up in the High Court to resolve issues like this,” she said. “It is not right.”